AT Europe: Paris House Tour - Chez Pascale

When Pascale moved into her 5th-floor one-bedroom walk-up in the 18th arrondissement, the first thing she did was paint the walls of white -- except the deep red walls of the corridor and living room from the previous tenants. "I just love that color," says Pascale, who was a renter before she bought the place recently.

Pascale's apartment is a charming, nonchalant jumble of second-hand furniture from the street (the naked mannequin) and Paris brocantes, including a number of pint-sized chairs that she's been collecting in anticipation of welcoming a soon-to-be adopted daughter from Haiti. But she says the brocante isn't really her thing. "My mother loves it!" she says with a laugh, giving her mother credit for the vintage tables, rug and furniture. The chandelier and 50s chairs in the living room were left to her by her grandfather. She recovered them in colorful modern mismatched fabrics from the Marché Saint-Pierre-Dreyfus, the legendary fabric market nearby at 2 rue Charles Nodier.

Pascale also inherited an avocado green 70s sink in the bathroom that she plans to replace as soon as possible. And she said that while she loves the deep red corridor color, her dream would be to break down the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room to make it easier to talk to her guests when she entertains. "We call that a cuisine américaine," she says with a smile, referring to the trendy French term for an open-plan kitchen. She's lucky to have a narrow balcony that stretches the length of the apartment. You have to step outside to appreciate the view of the Eiffel Tower.